Fri Nov 23, 2012 at 19:55:16 PM EST

Sadly, as Paul Krugman correctly points out, it's not just on climate science that the Teapublican'ts follow the mantra, "If evidence seems to contradict faith, suppress the evidence." It's on everything: Marco Rubio's inability to admit that science has, indeed, figured out how old our planet is (and no, the answer is NOT 6,000 years!); "unskewing" the polls because they didn't believe it was possible President Obama could win reelection; adhering to "the dogma that cutting taxes on the wealthy leads to higher economic growth," etc, etc.

As always, I can't even imagine how 47%, or even 4.7% for that matter, of Americans could vote for a party that is so deeply hostile to rationality, to empirical reasoning, to science, to reality itself. I'm sure in part this is a failure of our education system, but what else is going on here? Are these people dumbed down from watching the idiot box (particularly channels like Faux "News") hours a day from an early age? I mean, that could certainly rot people's brains out of their heads. Are certain personality types simply immune to things like facts, logic, and math? All of the above? Any other theories?

Granted, Big Oil was hostile to climate science which tabbed the burning of fossil fuels as being one major source of climate change, because limiting the use of those fuels might adversely impact their profits. But what about all the rest of the bitter, intractable irrationality? It makes no sense unless there is some hidden agenda that some one has---- so, Who and Why? Or, is it simply playing to the lowest common denominator in order to raise ratings and thus their own profits with all this crass tabloid sensationalism?

I seriously doubt Murdoch the media giant, nor the other sponsors of "trash reality" believe one little iota of the pseudo-religiosity, the braying about Jesus and The War of Civilizations, and the fancy conspiracy theories... these are all window-dressing to cover their real agenda, which is.... what? why?

One way to control people is to arouse inchoate fear of whatever. The Republican Party made a terrible choice long ago when it decided to be the party to supplant Southern Democrats and pursue the "Southern Strategy," and thast was the start of the downfall of that party. Then,along came the fundamentalist right wing that used its fear of reproductive freedom for women and the loss of a blind adherence to biblical inerrancy to raise huge amounts money for religious charlatans. September 11 added further fear of the "other." Also, the spread of a "Gospel of Greed" allowed Romney to brand half of America as unworthy of respect.

Prejudice and appeals to ignorance are, sadly, the new hallmarks of the GOP. They have made a pact with the devil, and America is poorer for that. We need the party of Nelson Rockefeller to provide alternative ideas. (Ex., the use of market forces to control SO2 and acid rain. That worked, and it was a Republican idea.)

Krugman does mention the authoritarian mindset. I have been saying for years that todays republican conservatism is more like a cult. Republican conservatism has its own cable network, its own radio stations,and its own education system. Conservatives that I know are often afraid of listening to anything else because they may get a liberal bias. They absolutely believe what is being said in what I call "the bubble". republican conservatives can get hostile fast if you mention anything that might disagree with what the authoritarians are saying.

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